


The Persistence of the Heart

by Coffee_Scribbles



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics), Superman - All Media Types, Wonder Woman - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Hurt Bruce Wayne, Love Confessions, M/M, Multi, Soft Feels, caring boyfriend Clark, caring girlfriend Diana, for all of them really, lots of love for bruce, saying i love you for the first time, soft fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-22
Updated: 2019-04-22
Packaged: 2020-01-24 05:28:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18564877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Coffee_Scribbles/pseuds/Coffee_Scribbles
Summary: ‘Careful,’ warned his Mind, quiet but stern.‘Now,’ insisted his Heart, loud and impatient.i.e.: The first time Bruce says 'I love you' to his partners is in a hospital bed - go figure.





	The Persistence of the Heart

Batman groaned, the pounding of his head rhythmically shaking his already blurred vision. He squinted into the loud, buzzing lights, and tried to lift his arm to rub at his eyes. Something stopped him, not like a rope or a cuff to hold him in place, this felt frailer, balling his fists sent a dull ache through it.  
He leaned his head up off of something comfortably soft, and though his aching head punished him for even the small movement, the better vantage point gave him a prime view of his broken, bandaged body, and the IV pumping blood into his left wrist.  
Using his right hand now, he scrubbed the sleep from his eyes and yawned slightly, blinking as his blindingly white surroundings came into view. White walls, white ceiling, bright white lights, Clark in a white button up-  
Wait.

He looked at Clark, and his breath caught. The indestructible man was hunched over in his seat, dreary eyes resting closed, but his hands were locked tight around the frail arm-rests of the Justice League waiting chairs.

Bruce let his lips quirk into a tiny smile.  
Of course that dork would wait up for him. And, noticing Diana’s fur coat wrapped gently around his shoulders, and what was probably not Clark’s snake-skin purse on the second chair beside him.  
He figured Diana must be elsewhere in the building.

Clark stirred, groaning as his stiff, muscular shoulders rolled back, no doubt strained from spending the night in such dinky chairs.  
Bruce tried to even out his breathing and close his eyes, figuring if he mimicked sleep, Clark wouldn’t wake up. And no matter how he’d love to talk to Clark, find out how he was doing, and what happened… Bruce knew that his boyfriend needed the rest.

That said, Clark woke up anyway. Because no matter what Clark needed, everyone else always came first, because the indestructible Superman was stupid like that.

Quietly, ever so quietly, Clark spoke, Southern accent slurring in his words.  
“…Bruce?”  
Frankly, Bruce found his boyfriend’s sleepy drawl incredibly sweet, but this was not the time for thoughts like that. Especially when Bruce’s heart was hooked up to a monitor.  
“Bruce… I know ya awake…”

Giving up, Bruce playfully smirked and opened one eye.

“What gave me away?” Bruce asked his voice dry, but no less sweet.

Clark stood up.  
“When you’re awake and you hear my voice, your pulse quickens.”  
The man’s unbreakable bones and chiseled muscle creaked as he rolled out his shoulders, gently massaging under the shoulder-blade.

Bruce might’ve said something else, but at that moment, the door slid open to reveal Diana in her day-ware, a power-suit with a matching blazer, heels and three cups of coffee in a tray held in one hand, and her phone in the other, on which she seemed to be finishing a text or e-mail.

“I thought I heard your voice,” she walked over to Clark, and kissed him on the cheek, before looking directly back down at her phone.  
“Here’s your coffee,” she handed it to Clark, “and then I’ve got one for me, and one for whenever Bruce wakes-” She was making her way over to Bruce’s bedside when she finally put her phone in her pocket and looked up.  
She met Bruce’s eyes.

Bruce met her eyes.  
They both blinked.

“You’re awake?” Diana asked.

Bruce, unsure as to what to do, just nodded.

On her heel, Diana turned, and jutted a finger out at Clark.

“You didn’t tell me?”

“To be fair, he did just wake up,” Clark reasoned, still stretching out his shoulders.

Diana sighed a long, dreary sigh, and she smiled sweetly at Clark.  
“I told you you’d regret sleeping in that chair.”

“I know, you’re always right,” Clark said still fighting to get the knots out of his shoulders.  
Diana, however, just let out a short laugh.  
“Damn right,” she smirked, and walked over to Bruce’s bedside, sitting at the chair set up at the right side of his bed, and taking his hand in hers.  
She set both coffees on his side-table.

“How are you feeling?” Diana asked, voice smooth and soft like the gentlest silk.  
Before he could answer, she grabbed the remote attached to the medical bed.  
“Do you want to lean up so it’s easier to talk to us?”

Bruce nodded.

“Okay, tell me if it hurts.” She pressed the button to lean up the back, and the bed whirred and clicked for a moment.  
“Is that good?” Diana asked.

“Fine,” he said, gritting his teeth at the sore ache that bloomed through his side.

Diana glared fiercely at him.

“I told you to tell me if it hurt!”

“I never said I would,” he shrugged cheekily, and immediately regretted the action as it sent another spike of pain down his shoulder.

Her expression was angry for a moment, before her shoulders slumped.

“We, we were really worried…” Diana said, her hand tightening in Bruce’s.

Clark made his way over to the other side of the bed and, after nodding solemnly, simply stood there. Clark’s unbreakable hands, unwilling to do anything other than wrap around his warm coffee cup.

Bruce shifted awkwardly.

After a moment, Diana turned, wiggling Bruce’s coffee from the tray it was held in and, pausing a moment, she lifted the cup to his lips.

“Here, drink,” the order was curt, but kind.

Bruce swallowed. His throat was incredibly dry, but he could hold the cup himself.  
“You don’t have too-“

Her direct and cold stare had him moving his lips to the opening in a matter of seconds.  
She tilted it, and eagerly he sipped at the warm, liquid ambrosia.

She pulled it away, and Bruce leaned his head back onto his pillow, licking his lips and granting a deep sigh.

Clark let out a small laugh at how satisfied Bruce seemed, and Diana rolled her eyes.  
But she was smiling; they both were.

“I love you,” Bruce said drearily.

Clark let out another slight laugh, smiling and leaning against the wall.

“You know he’s lost blood because he’s talking to his coffee,” Clark said with a quick chuckle.  
Diana laughed fully this time, the sound melodic and beckoning him closer.

Her hair caught in the light of the window, likely opened by Clark, or by Diana for Clark.  
They were both… perfect; absolutely perfect.

‘Careful,’ warned his Mind, quiet but stern in its assertion of facts.  
They had only been dating for a month and a half. Plus, he already had the perfect cover. There was no reason for him to say the big L word yet, not when it could be seen as clingy, or worse, drive them away.

‘Now,’ insisted his Heart, loud, impatient, and unwilling to let the tactician decide their fate.

“I love you more than coffee,” Bruce said, the words spilling out like a dam flooding over. Filled with love that could not bare to wait another second. “But please don't make me prove it,” his voice was smooth but nerves sharp and unsteady, following with the smallest, loneliest laugh to ever grace his lips.

And just like that, the world stopped.  
The silence was cold, not like ice or winter, but cold like a brick wall, like isolation; rejection.

“We’ve…” Clark was the first to speak, his face growing pinker by the second.

“You’ve never said that before.”

Bruce’s heartbeat rushed in his ears, the heart monitor beating slightly quicker, but his expression stayed unreadable.  
“So?” Bruce asked defensively.  
“We’ve known it, even if we haven’t said the words. And… we would’ve said it at some point,” Bruce swallowed, the motion dry and scratchy.  
His next words felt small and frail.  
“Unless we… broke up.”

“But that would never happen,” Diana said warmly. Not in the way that a fire is warm, but like the sun beating down on you, or the feeling of a sweet sip of coffee traveling down your throat, like acceptance; love.

Diana smiled smoothly, standing, circling the bed to the other hand, and grabbing Bruce’s hand, then Clark’s, and tugging them close together, Clark stumbling close.  
She placed their hands on top of each-other, folding them such that they clasped together.

“Because we love you too.” Diana carefully leaned over Bruce and kissed his lips, the sensation felt electric. Perfect in very sense of the word.  
Diana leaned away gently, eyes fluttering open, watching him.  
Even though it hurt, Bruce’s head instinctively lifted from its pillow to chase her lips. He never wanted this to end; her commanding touch, her softness, her love.  
Diana let out a small breath, like a laugh, but softer, taking her hand to cup his jaw and press his head back to rest. It was there that she pressed a slower kiss to his lips, then one softly onto his cheek.  
She leaned up and turned toward the blushing farm-boy.  
“Right Clark?”

Clark was bright red, but shyly nodded anyway.

“I-I mean… yeah.”  
Diana pressed a quick kiss to Clark’s lips too, and a swell of love filled Bruce’s heart again. He wanted to say it again, and again, and again and again until his throat could no longer speak.  
Then, he would say it in sign language until his hands couldn’t move anymore.  
After that… well, he’d find a way.

Clark just smiled sheepishly and did that truly adorable thing he did when he was flustered. The one where he rubbed at the back of his neck and turned away, face bright red and lips pursed just enough that you could tell he was fighting off a smile.  
Ugh how was this man so perfect?

“I guess…” Clark said, sounding rather dazed. He was smiling, so bright the sun would be jealous.  
“Guess it just caught me off guard, be-because I love you too.”

Bruce so wished he wasn’t stuck in this hospital bed. But since he was, with his hand in Clark’s, he tugged the invincible man’s hand as hard as he could.  
It was unexpected, and Clark stumbled forward, catching himself leaned over the edge of the bed. Using that momentary confusion, Bruce unlatched his hand from Clark’s and pulled him forward by his jaw, close, an inch away.  
Clark’s eyes instantly fell shut as Bruce leaned up to kiss him.  
Clark leaned forward, deeper into it, soft and gentle, but at the same time, harsh; full of love and longing.

Clark pulled up, and Bruce took in a deep breath, because damn did Clark know just how to kiss him to make his brain go fuzzy.  
Clark swallowed harshly, and Bruce watched the flush over his face with great satisfaction as Clark straightened his dress-shirt and cleared his throat.

“Bruce…” Clark said, tone just slightly commanding in the way that made Bruce jittery.  
“You’re still hurt,” Clark said. Diana nodded, but smirked.

“And when, exactly, has that stopped him before?” Diana asked.

Bruce smiled innocently, or as innocently as was possible for him.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Bruce said with a large grin, grabbing Clark’s hand again, and looking him in the eye.

“I was just kissing my boyfriend, whom I love and cherish. And who I think is a great-”

“Bruce,” Diana warned, a hand on her hip.

“A great kisser!” Bruce said loudly, “what did you think I was gonna say?”

“Uh huh.” Clark said disbelievingly. “I’m sure that’s exactly what you were gonna say.”

“I am being unfairly persecuted here,” Bruce muttered, pretending he wasn’t smiling.  
Diana rolled her eyes as her boyfriends continued to playfully bicker and flirt, taking a sip of her coffee; it felt warm, or maybe that was the feeling of knowing Bruce would be okay; or maybe it was just love.

They did love each-other, no matter what happened, no matter what the future held for them; they would face it together.  
And Diana could not be more glad.


End file.
